This relates to a method and apparatus for evaluating a load bearing surface. It is particularly useful in measuring the pressures exerted on a seat and in evaluating such seat for comfort. For this reason, it will be described in this context. However, it will be understood that the invention has other applications as well.
Despite the amount of time that people spend seated, very little quantitative information is available on what is a comfortable seat. Designers generally have to rely on their prior experience, customer feedback and the ultimate test of whether a specific design is successful or not. Needless to say, this is not very satisfactory in any situation and is especially bad where considerable time and large sums of money must be committed to a design without knowing whether a particular seat is comfortable or not. These problems are particularly acute in the transportation industry where seating comfort is a great concern to every consumer and where changes in a design are difficult if not impossible once production starts.
While attempts have been made in the past to quantify the issue of seating comfort, these attempts have not resulted in an acceptable means of measuring comfort. One difficulty with prior art systems is caused by interference between the measuring system and the individual testing the seat. In particular, the measuring system often causes the individual to alter the way he sits in the seat, thereby invalidating the whole measurement. Alternatively, the measuring system affects the individual's comfort, again rendering any measurements useless. Still other problems are created by the lack of real-time measurements which make it difficult to spot problems as they arise and make adjustments for these problems.